At least 20 Guard personnel killed in Iran bombing

"In this suicide attack a vehicle filled with explosives blew up beside a bus carrying a unit of the Guard ground forces causing the martyrdom and wounding of a number of the protectors of our Islamic homeland's border", it said.

Known for being volatile, militant groups and drug smugglers frequently operate in the area.

It is reportedly affiliated to Al Qaeda, and has claimed responsibility for two attacks in the last few weeks, including one on a police station in the city of Zahedan, and one that killed a Revolutionary Guard.

Tehran immediately linked the attack in Iran's restive southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province to an ongoing USA -led conference in Warsaw largely focused on Iran, just two days after the nation marked the 40th anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution. In 2018, the Guards launched missiles at an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group in northern Iraq.

And in October, Jaish al-Adl kidnapped at least 10 security personnel, including several Revolutionary Guards, at a border post in Mirjaveh.

And in early December past year two people were killed and around 40 others wounded in the port city of Chabahar, also in Sistan-Baluchistan, in an attack which Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the time blamed on "foreign-backed terrorists" - a reference to Sunni Muslim extremists.

Iranian authorities blamed "jihadist separatists" for the assault claiming they were backed by Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States.

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In a tweet, Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Javad Zarif, who has been critical of the Warsaw gathering, obliquely implied there could be a connection between the summit and the attack on the Revolutionary Guards.

"Is it no coincidence that Iran is hit by terror on the very day that (hashtag) WarsawCircus begins?"

Neighbouring Pakistan condemned the suicide attack, "Shocked and grieved to hear about the suicide attack on IRGC bus near Zahidan today, in which many lives were lost", Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said in a statement. Trump withdrew the USA from the accord last May.

"Especially when cohorts of same terrorists cheer it from Warsaw streets & support it with twitter bots?"

"About the United States, the resolution of any issues is not imaginable and negotiations with it will bring nothing but material and spiritual harm", Khamenei said in a statement.

"I believe it's dead on arrival or dead before arrival", he said at a news conference before the bombing.